Letter to the editor: City should pass plastic-bag ban

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I'm completely disappointed in the City Council's decision not to make a decision on the "Bring Your Own Bag" ordinance. The support of both the public and the business community in the city is, I think, believable, and should have been sufficient to bring action from the council. Far greater, however, is the shucking of the responsibility of our elected officials to do the right thing on all things environmental.

Everything possible to get us off petroleum-based products is the right thing to do. This was a possible thing to do. The council, at least, didn't do the absolutely wrong thing by voting the ordinance down, but they showed a disgusting tendency to ignore the environment, presumably in deference to the fear their action might cost someone a little bit. The council has left itself the option of bringing this ordinance back to the table without the burden of having once been voted down. They should do that posthaste and pass it.

One hopes the indecision wasn't motivated by deference to the opinions of one or more of the very few in this community who are the traditional "movers and shakers." If anything should be obvious to everyone, especially our elected officials, it is that the judgments of our movers and shakers has long been more apt to be wrong than right. Just look at the hole, although that is just the most obvious example.

We must move beyond the longstanding devotion to all things casino and begin to think in terms of all things natural.